As we are now in the final quarter of 2022, beauty businesses are getting ready to enter new eras by reaching wider audiences, firming up regulatory changes and pursuing sustainability initiatives. From one brand’s launch in a growing personal care segment, a new podcast and the latest experience-based trend in Korea to China’s new rules on raw materials and further efforts to find a palm oil alternative — developments are taking place throughout the beauty space.

In our bi-weekly cosmetics and personal care roundup, we delve into the latest news from the global industry. Discover recent news, from trends and launches to regulations and partnerships.

Korean beauty brands turn to “value experiences”

Beauty biotechnology name Labio highlights the latest industry trend in Korea. The Seoul-based company that combines cosmetics with technology shared its latest insights on K-beauty developments in its recent newsletter on 4th October 2022.

Highlighting the new trend as “From Pandemic to Endemic”, Labio shares that today, consumers in Korea are seeking brands and products that provide valuable experiences. The country’s latest trend draws on the ever-growing popularity of the marriage between marketing and technology (MarTech), customised and premium offerings and short-form content.

In Korea, MarTech is currently seeing advances in high-tech innovations, including artificial intelligence (AI), big data, software, applications, tools and platforms to support brands as they grow. Technologies specific to the beauty industry enable brands to market various personalised cosmetics.

Consumers are looking for customised and premium products. Consequently, competitiveness is rising as brands strive to innovate products that provide specific insights based on various data.

Short-form content, otherwise known as short-keting, is also increasing, Labio shares. The idea is that brands are pursuing short-term strategic marketing fast by exploring short-term content, topical memes or challenges.

Keyword terms are also growing in relevancy. Labio notes that ‘nanosocial’, ‘meaning out’ and ‘superego’ have emerged in Korea through the virtual-reality space known as the metaverse as leading marketing words for beauty brands to target. As a result, the “value experiences” trend has emerged, as consumers look for effortless communication with brands and products that centre on personalisation.

Essity announces its new menopause brand Issviva

Health and hygiene company Essity has launched its latest brand, Issviva. In developing and unveiling its latest offering, the Swedish company marks its entry into a new personal care product area. Issviva is aimed at people experiencing menopause and is designed to raise awareness and break down the taboo around the transition into menopause, the brand states.

The company’s launch comes ahead of World Menopause Day on 18th October. The brand hopes to use the global awareness day to offer knowledge, solutions and products for people experiencing menopause. Users of the new brand’s website can share experiences on the platform with other consumers and send questions for experts to answer.

Essity has designed its Issviva brand to provide comprehensive guides with articles and material that hope to inform and educate consumers about menopause. Additionally, Issviva will offer products and services that aim to help people by alleviating symptoms that typically appear during different stages of menopause. The new brand’s product range comprises vitamins, minerals, supplements and intimate hygiene products that are geared to complement Essity’s current incontinence and feminine care offerings.

“Even though the menopause is a natural part of life, it is perceived as being a taboo subject with many preconceptions linked to fertility, sexuality and ageing. In some parts of the world, the menopause is associated with disease or problems and is often referred to sarcastically,” Essity states in a press statement.

Essity conducted a global survey with 15,000 respondents, which it reports, highlights “significant knowledge gaps”. From its findings, Essity found that 41% of respondents say they are knowledgeable or very knowledgeable about menopause. However, the brand reports that 75% of those asked gave the wrong answer or were unable to answer the false claim that menopausal women cannot become pregnant. The Issviva-created company also noted that most respondents said they would not speak out if a friend or family member ridiculed someone experiencing menopause.

Issviva is currently available in the UK and Brazil. Essity states it plans on launching the brand in additional markets in the near future.

Kao commits to venture to scale palm oil alternatives

Japanese chemical and cosmetics company Kao teams up with Genomatica (Geno), a biotechnology research company based in California, US, to become a founding member of the latter’s venture to scale palm oil alternatives globally.

On 29th September 2022, Kao and Geno announced their collaboration to work towards scaling and commercialising plant-based alternatives to palm kernel oil. Kao became a founding member of Geno’s venture, alongside Unilever’s €122 million ($120 million) commitment to finding palm oil alternatives. Geno aims to reduce greenhouse gases by 100 million tonnes in “upcoming years”, the company states, and increase the production capacity of palm oil alternatives.

Kao’s decision to invest in Geno’s venture marks a key strategic decision as the company strives to meet key climate goals, including lowering its carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2040 and becoming carbon negative by 2050.

“To drive sustainable development and contribute toward the building of a resource-circulating society, Kao will continue to undertake responsible, sustainable palm oil procurement,” says Masahiro Katayose, Senior Executive Officer in charge of chemical business at Kao.

Givaudan launches beauty podcast

Flavour, fragrance and active cosmetics ingredients manufacturer Givaudan unveils its new podcast, Active Beauty of air.

On 5th October 2022, the active beauty arm of the cosmetics company announced the arrival of its podcast channel, which aims to provide those in the beauty industry with insights into Givaudan’s work creating cosmetics ingredients. The podcast will also centre around market trends and information on beauty ingredients.

Givaudan’s inaugural podcast series focuses on the skin microbiome. In the three-part series, the active beauty creator seeks to inform beauty industry executives, brands, formulators and marketers about how to balance marketing and science messages around the skin microbiome to improve the impact this information has on consumers.

The first podcast delves into the skin microbiome in the beauty sphere, detailing how lifestyle and genetics can affect its composition, uniqueness, role in keeping the skin healthy and how the beauty industry responds to this need.

Next up, Givaudan looks at the skin microbiome and consumers’ “friendship” with bacteria, exploring some of the manufacturer’s active ingredients that are tailored to the skin microbiome.

Lastly, the podcast provides insights into the technology serving the skin microbiome, such as i-Maps, instant microbiome analysis and profiling systems. The podcast discusses how this technology works and how it expects cosmetic personalisation to shape beauty in the future.

China introduces cosmetics raw materials requirements

From the 1st January 2023, cosmetics brands will need to complete mandatory safety information for each of their cosmetics raw materials when completing product notifications or registrations in China.

The Safety Notification Code or Submission Code of Cosmetic Raw Materials is designed to promote raw material safety management in China’s cosmetics industry. The National Medical Products Administration has set up a cosmetic raw material safety information notification platform to help manage this process. Following its establishment, raw material factories will need to fill in the necessary raw material safety information.

After completing this information, brands will be given a safety notification code. Cosmetics registrants and filing persons can then submit this code when registering cosmetics products. Completing and filing information on the product’s raw ingredients only needs to take place once.

Brands can provide raw material safety information directly by filing it via the platform or through a safety notification code from the raw material manufacturer. Raw material manufacturers are recommended to obtain the notification code to avoid multiple administrations.

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